Monthly Archives: December 2011

We’d like to wish you a Happy New Year. Thank you for making 2011 one of our best ever. There is a lot happening in 2012, so be sure to check back with us either on our web site, here on our blog, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

We’ll be closed on Monday, January 2nd, but will open up for business as usual on Tuesday, January 3rd.

In the meantime, here’s a photo of Bob’s first lathe which has been in continual use since Bob opened shop now going into our 43rd year.

Bob Reeves First Lathe with Trumpet Mouthpiece Blanks

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For many years we’ve had a signed photo of Zeke Zarchy standing with Louis Armstrong hanging on the shop wall. Bob loves telling the story of how Zeke had an artist paint in his left hand, which at close look, seems rather larger. Here’s the photo:

Louis Armstrong and Zeke Zarchy photo signed by Zeke.

Well, we were doing some winter cleaning and came across the original photo that was used:

Apparently, Zeke had cropped out the rest of the trumpet section! On the left is Jimmy Salko who was a customer of Bob’s for years playing on his mouthpieces and getting valve alignments on all his trumpets. Next to him is Don Fagerquist, a fabulous trumpet player who Bob heard often around town. In the middle is Louis Armstrong. While working for Purviance, Bob made Louis Armstrong’s last 6 trumpet mouthpieces. They were all Puviance 4*K4 mouthpieces or variations on them. Next to Louis is Zeke, who Bob knew for years and made several mouthpieces for and line up all his trumpets. Finally, on the far right is Manny Stevens. Manny was also a long-time customer of Bob’s, playing on Bob’s pieces and having alignments done whenever he picked up a new horn.